You know the saying “Another day, another dollar?" Well, for me it's "another day, another 8 hours of working."
Over the past few days I have had a lot of people asking me why I accepted an unpaid internship for the summer. With tuition bills, rent and utility bills for my new apartment, and just general living expenses adding up I understand why so many people would be curious about the decision I have made. I took some time to think about my personal choice and came up with the conclusion that it is for my own brand image. Eventually we will all graduate and have to market ourselves to potential employees. I could have been a waitress, babysitter, or worked in a movie theater among many other options college students can choose from. In no way do I intend to discount the work ethic and value that goes into a job I have previously stated, as I know those jobs are valuable work experiences, although when considering how I wanted to brand myself for a job in advertising, actual experience in the field was what I thought fit best.
Brand Image is one of the most important parts of having a successful product. If you have a poor reputation you will most likely not be the first choice of the consumer. You can have a great product but if you don't have a great image to back it up than it's pretty much worthless. We live in a world where everybody wants the best of the best, a product that will satisfy all of their needs, wants, and more! I'm hoping this internship will give me a leg up on the competition as I am gaining valuable knowledge about the Advertising Industry that you don't get from working at McDonald's. I was sent an article today about Pepsi and how they are using green environmentally friendly cups to promote their brand image. This article really hit the nail on the head in terms of how people respond to products when they give themselves a positive image. Their goal is to put themselves above Coca Cola, who came out with a plant bottle made from 30% plant materials, and make more sales with their completely biodegradable cups. You can check out the article here: http://www.brandchannel.com/home/post/2011/05/23/PepsiCo-Green-Cups-Launch.aspx In essence, I have the same concept. Make myself look better and more desirable than the competition.
Interestingly enough, this concept also ties in with what I’ve spent many hours working on this week. I was asked by CH&B to go through their portfolios of old and current work and set up albums on Flickr and Picasa to display what they’ve worked on. This includes examples of direct mail, Print Ads, Brochures, and Corporate ID. It was my job to take the examples and set them up on various photo sites so that CH&B has a quality representation of their work online. The goal? Obviously to showcase CH&B’s work in a tasteful manner to build a positive image of the work CH&B puts out. It’s not rocket science but it is a very important, sometimes forgotten, part of advertising. You can check out some of CH&B’s work that I have put together here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/campbellharringtonbrear/
So really I guess my new motto should be “Another day, another 8 hours put into building my brand image.”
No comments:
Post a Comment